Michael A. Taylor singled in the winning run in seventh inning and Christian Vazquez went 2-for-3 with two doubles and an RBI as the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night in Minneapolis.
Carlos Correa reached base four times with two hits and two walks and Jordan Balazovic (1-0) picked up his first major league victory with a hitless inning of relief for Minnesota, which improved to 7-2 since the All-Star break.
Jhoan Duran, despite giving up a pair of infield singles, struck out the side in the ninth. He fanned Luis Robert Jr. on a 102.5-mph fastball to end the game and notch his 17th save.
Tim Anderson stole home on a double steal and had two hits, while Yasmani Grandal and Robert also had two hits apiece for Chicago. Keynan Middleton (2-2) suffered the loss in relief of Dylan Cease, who allowed one run on three hits over six innings while striking out nine.
Chicago parlayed four singles and a double steal into a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Anderson singled with one out, advanced to third on a single by Robert and then scored on the double steal when Vazquez threw down to second to try and get Robert on the front end of the play. One out later, Grandal singled to right to drive in Robert.
Minnesota cut it to 2-1 in the bottom of the third when Vazquez led off with a double off the wall in right, advanced to third on a groundout by Taylor and scored on Correa’s line-drive double.
The Twins then took the lead in the seventh when five consecutive batters reached base against White Sox relievers Middleton and Gregory Santos.
With one out, Byron Buxton walked and stole second. After Kyle Farmer followed with an infield single, Buxton came around to score thanks to a double off the top of the left field fence by Vazquez. Taylor followed with a line-drive single to center to drive in Farmer for what proved to be the game-winning run.
Twins starter Sonny Gray surrendered two runs on seven hits in six innings.
–Field Level Media
